Sex, Secrets And Frankie Howerd (C4); Love On A Saturday Night (ITV1); The Brief (ITV1); Wren - The Man Who Built Britain (BBC1): THE tears of a clown syndrome - that behind every comedian is a tragic man - has become such a clich that we're disappointed if it's not true.

The Frankie Howerd documentary, yet another expose of the private life of a funny men, fulfilled the requirement by documenting how the titter-ye-not performer pounced on young men who crossed his path.

He was reckless considering homosexuality was illegal in the early years of his career and being outed was considered not only professional suicide but also likely to lead to arrest.

Howerd seemed to think it was his right to drop his trousers, literally and metaphorically, in the presence of any young male. While today's pop stars demand champagne and sweets in their dressing rooms, his extras were sexual favours. A favourite ruse was to complain of aches and pains, and ask the young man to rub ointment into the offending area.

None of the revelations were particularly new and the minor celebrities involved should have known better than to spread tittle-tattle. The most interesting aspect was that Fleet Street colluded with Howerd and didn't expose him in print although they knew of his habits.

Today, the recipients of his advances would receive thousands of pounds for kiss-and-tell stories. They might even end up on Love On A Saturday Night, the Blind Date replacement that has, inexplicably, been given a second series.

This week, the programme decided to fix up a date for Rebecca Loos - or the woman in the Beckham affair, as she's known. This was so tacky it made the Howerd documentary look like Panorama. Several nudge, nudge, wink, wink jokes about football were made as Loos selected one of three volunteers to go out with her. It would serve her right if they sold their story to the tabloids.

I'm not sure which was more desperate - her determination to cling on to her 15 minutes of fame or ITV trying to breath life into a dead show.

The tabloids would have a field day with some of the characters in The Brief, the new legal eagle series which gives comedian Alan Davies a straight - well, straightish - role as cycling junior barrister Henry Farmer. He's having an affair with a woman who's married to a bi-sexual MP which, in tabloid terms, is up there with sleeping (allegedly) with a famous footballer.

All this shenanigans makes Christopher Wren look a bit of a namby-pamby even if he was, as the drama-documentary put it, The Man Who Built Britain.

Actor Hugh Bonneville was given little to do but look thoughtful under a huge wig, although the story of how Wren built St Paul's Cathedral was a fascinating one. The closest thing to a scandal was how he conspired, with a little help from Charles II, to fool the church authorities who wanted a more traditional building.

He never slept with a footballer or propositioned young men. The worst thing you could say about Wren's private life was that he failed to pop the question to his future wife for many years because he was too busy drawing up architectural plans.

Published: 26/04/2004